Town Hall facing bats & rainwater menace; Heritage craving for attention of custodian for past one decade!

Rafique Aziz

Aurangabad, June 30:

The heritage structure, Town Hall, which is under the custodian of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), is gasping for a fresh lease of life, for the past decade. The heritage is facing severe menace from bats, rainwater and is craving for the immediate attention of its custodian, but the pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears of the civic authorities.

Dedicated new building in 2008

The one-storeyed hexagonal shape structure is built on a 10,000 square feet area. There are 24 rooms and the size of each room is 8x10 feet. There are three entrances. The cone-shaped roof made of Mangalore tiles on top, circular-shaped raised platform (used as the stage) in the centre of the building and its outstanding construction, are the main attraction. The AMC had spent around Rs 60 lakh to renovate the building. The then deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde has inaugurated the renovated building on December 20, 2008. The task of the renovation was performed by heritage architect Abraham Pathrose.

Dying a slow death: heritage lovers

The heritage lovers, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that the Town Hall has got converted into an 'Ajayab Ghar' because of bats. It is the home of hundreds of bats during the night. These bats defecate and then sprinkle the waste with their wings on the walls of the heritage building. The unpleasant walls and foul smell welcomes the visitors, here. Presently, the structure resembles a bird room of the zoo. The officials concerned expressed their helplessness and pointed out that they are trying their best to attract the attention of higher officials for the past decade, but is in vain. Now they had lost hope. Through correspondence, the officials concerned are demanding to redress their grievances on priority.

HCC chairman: I will take up the issue

The retired IAS officer, who is president of Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) Jayant Deshpande expressed concern when the scribe brought into his notice the pathetic condition of the Town Hall. He said, " Notably, the heritage is listed as one of the protected structures in the city, with us. It is a matter of grave concern. I was not aware of the issues including bats and rainwater menace. I am in Mumbai, but I will speak to the AMC administrator A K Pandey and request him to look into the matter. Maintaining and colouring Town Hall is not a big deal for the AMC. A couple of years ago, the HCC had suggested to display big size photographs of monuments in the district and instructed to conduct art and craft exhibitions regularly so that the property could be maintained due to footfalls."

Renovate the structure under Smart City?

The heritage-lovers continued, " Acting upon the proposal of AMC, the Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) is conserving nine heritage gates and clock tower (of Shahgunj) by spending around Rs 4 crore. The works are nearing completion. The AMC officials could propose and maintain it through the Smart City fund. It is the high time, the historians of the city should take up the matter aggressively and give a new lease of life to the city's heritage on priority."

When contacted the Town Hall curator H M Bansal refused to comment saying to contact his superiors.

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Demands made for the past one decade!

The civic officials and personnel concerned, through its channel are corresponding with various superiors, since 2011. Through correspondence, they tried to attract the attention of the higher officials to undertake colouring of the heritage structure (from outer and interior side), fix steel mesh on open 15-20 windows like the one installed in the Bibi ka Maqbara, repairing of water outlets on the terrace, filling of cracks in the heritage structure, etc. They underlined that peepal trees are growing on the parapet wall of the terrace. The roots of these trees block the flow of rainwater passing through the small size outlets and thus standing pool of water is formed on the terrace frequently which remains for days at a stretch. Many a time, the terrace water overflows and gets deposited in the lobby of the Town Hall at the ground level. There are around 16 open vertical shaped windows (of 5 feet height and 2 feet width windows) that needs to be fixed with steel mesh immediately. The mesh will prevent bats from entering the building. All these demands are not being unattended by the superiors for the past many years, said the sources.

Town Hall was built by the prime minister of the Nizam Shahi dynasty Malik Amber (the founder of the city or erstwhile Khadki) during his regime. The structure Cheeta Khana or Pandit Khana was a platform for the intellectuals to meet and discuss various topics including art and culture. In the 1980s, the building was used by AMC' as its meeting hall.

Later on, it was converted into stores. However, the then municipal commissioner Aseem Kumar Gupta proposed to renovate the building to mark the 400 years to the discovery of the city in 2005-2006, it is learnt.